Colin began his work with NPR on the Arts Desk, where he reviewed books and produced stories on arts and culture, then went on to write a daily roundup of news in literature and the publishing industry for the Two-Way blog — named Book News, naturally.

Later, as a producer for the Digital News desk, he wrote and edited feature news coverage, curated NPR's home page and managed its social media accounts. During his time on the desk, he co-created NPR's live headline contest "Head to Head," with Camila Domonoske, and won the American Copy Editors Society's annual headline-writing prize in 2015.

These days, as a reporter for the Newsdesk, he writes for NPR.org, reports for the network's on-air newsmagazines, and regularly hosts NPR's daily Facebook Live segment, "Newstime." He has covered hurricanes, international elections and unfortunate marathon mishaps, among many other stories. He also had some things to say about shoes once on Invisibilia.

Colin graduated from Georgetown University with a master's degree in English literature.

New York State Police have arrested the son of the owner of Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service, the company involved in the crash that left 20 people dead about 40 miles outside Albany last weekend. Nauman Hussain, whom police described as the company's "operator," was charged Wednesday with criminally negligent homicide for his role in the fatal incident.

Brett Kavanaugh is a Supreme Court justice. That much is certain after senators narrowly approved his controversial nomination Saturday, putting an end to his bitter confirmation battle with a slim vote in his favor.

But even as one phase of Kavanaugh's story ends, another is beginning: His lifetime tenure on the highest court in the U.S. And this story promises to last much longer.

Inside the Senate chamber Friday, lawmakers gathered to consider Brett Kavanaugh's controversial nomination to Supreme Court. There, the federal judge earned just enough support to advance to a final vote on his confirmation.

Nearly a week after an earthquake struck Sulawesi, spawning a massive tsunami that overwhelmed the Indonesian island's central coast, aid groups are finally getting a foothold in the badly battered region — though challenges remain immense for relief and recovery efforts.

"Some people are now receiving basic food items like rice, noodles and canned food, but this remains a small minority. The food situation in Palu remains dire, and with the market closed we're even struggling to feed ourselves," said Genadi Aryawan, a Mercy Corps team member stationed in the city.

What could possibly bring together a painter, an economist, a pastor and a planetary scientist? If you ask the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the answer is simpler than you may think: They've all shown creativity, potential for future achievements — and the likelihood that $625,000, meted out over five years, will help them complete their grand designs.

The State Department has reversed course on its visa requirements for same-sex partners of foreign diplomats and the staff of U.S.-based international organizations. On Monday, it implemented a policy denying visas to such partners if they're not legally married.

When Dennis Dickey lined up his rifle, he was ready for a surprise. That is the point of a gender-reveal party, after all, and Dickey's inanimate target was ready to yield its unpredictable answer just as soon as he fired. But it wasn't his child's gender that was to offer the biggest bombshell of his family bash last year.

Precisely one year since Catalan separatists took to the polls to declare independence from Spain, they again fanned out across the region — this time not to cast votes but to block streets and pack city plazas.

"The First of October is and will always be the day the Catalan people demonstrated their immense commitment to democracy and freedom," Catalonia's president, Quim Torra, tweeted Monday upon his visit to the small town of Sant Julià de Ramis.

By all accounts, Florence was a massive, wet monster of a storm — and an expensive one, too. Its historic deluge swelled inland rivers and wrecked homes across the Carolinas, racking up costs that early estimates set as high as $22 billion.

Every year the National Book Foundation features a few fresh faces or unfamiliar names among the nominees for its annual literary prize. This time around, though, there's a twist. One of the actual National Book Award categories is something readers have not seen for quite some time: a prize for a work in translation.

When Argentine President Mauricio Macri told the country he had asked the International Monetary Fund to speed its disbursement of a $50 billion loan, he consciously aimed to assuage the fears of uneasy market watchers.

"We have seen new expressions of a lack of confidence in the markets, specifically over our financing capacity in 2019," Macri said in a speech posted to Facebook Wednesday, adding: "This decision aims to eliminate any uncertainty."

Shortly after the U.S. announced its withdrawal from the Paris accord, a global pact to combat climate change, French President Emmanuel Macron assumed the mantle of environmental crusader with a pointed rebuke of the Trump administration: "Make our planet great again," he declared just hours later.

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa's win at the ballot box some three weeks ago has now been confirmed in a courtroom.

The country's Constitutional Court ruled unanimously in his favor Friday, determining that a legal challenge from the principal opposition party had failed to back up its claims of vast election irregularities.

The two men convicted of maliciously wounding a black man after last year's white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., have been sentenced to prison time. Jacob Scott Goodwin has been sentenced to serve eight years in prison for his role in the beating, while Alex Michael Ramos has been sentenced to six.

Last month, after the U.S. leveled tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports and after China retaliated in kind, Beijing described the escalating trans-Pacific antagonism as "the largest trade war in economic history."

Just days after the massive Mendocino Complex Fire ignited in Northern California, fire officials were getting desperate in their emails to Verizon Wireless. As Santa Clara County firefighters mobilized, they discovered that Internet access had slowed to a crawl on the vehicle they were using to coordinate their response.

"Please work with us," Daniel Farrelly, a systems analyst for the Santa Clara Fire Department, entreated the company in an email dated July 30. "All we need is a plan that does not offer throttling or caps of any kind."

In Venezuela, where the annual inflation rate topped 60,000 percent this weekend, the currency has lost so much value that it takes stacks of bills just to buy a roll of toilet paper. The average consumer might as well bring a wheelbarrow to the market — not to transport groceries but to cart all the cash needed to buy them.

President Ashraf Ghani marked the 99th anniversary of Afghanistan's independence on Sunday by offering some hope for a "long lasting and real peace." The proposal: Beginning Monday, Afghanistan would honor a three-month truce with the Taliban to celebrate the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, "provided that the Taliban reciprocate."

Editor's Note: This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.

Nearly a week after a Pennsylvania grand jury released its roughly 900-page report on sexual abuse by clergy, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church has penned a letter condemning the alleged misconduct and pledging repentance.

It was just after 7:30 p.m. on July 26 when dispatchers heard Jeremy Stoke's mayday call. The fire inspector had been in his pickup heading to evacuate a neighborhood in northwest Redding, Calif., when he was trapped by the blaze himself.

Only silence answered the dispatchers' replies. They found Stoke's body the next day.

Nearly a year since Myanmar began its bloody crackdown on the Rohingya, driving more than 700,00 members of the Muslim minority group to flee, the U.S. is sanctioning several high-level commanders and units in the country's armed forces.

The Treasury Department announced the penalties Friday, saying they're part of a "strategy to hold accountable those responsible for such wide scale human suffering."

Monsoon rains are lashing southern India, where water has overrun riverbanks, submerged city buildings and left a death toll of dozens of people. The chief minister of Kerala, the state hit hardest by the storms, has described the situation as "an unprecedented flood havoc."